Hey guys, with nonstop builds over the past year, my shop has become a disaster zone. So I've decided to make 2019 the year of shop projects and shop organization! My first shop furniture this year is this mobile drill press stand with lots of storage. But what makes it unique is that it allows the drill press base to sit underneath the top, which helps to free up lots of work surface on top. It also has a pull out platform for writing, put smaller workpieces on, or whatever your heart wants.
Check out the full build video below!
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tools
STEP 1: BREAKING DOWN PLYWOOD
As with all of my builds, I began by breaking down the large sheets of plywood down to more manageable sizes using my tracksaw, before taking to my table saw where I cut the main cabinet sides down to size. Then I used some iron-on type edgebanding to cover up the exposed plywood edges.
step 2: case glue-up
I used pocket holes and glue to assemble the two side panels to the bottom panel. Corner clamps were used to keep the panels squared up as I drove in the pocket screws.
Next, I drilled pocket holes into the two back panels and the vertical partition. I first positioned the vertical partition using the top stretchers as spacers before attaching it to the bottom panel. Then I assembled the back panels, which were attached to the vertical partition, side panels, and the bottom panel.
Next, I attached the horizontal stretchers to tie everything together before moving on to cut the top panel. I purposely cut the top panel larger than it needed to be so that I could take a router to flush everything up after it’s been fastened to the rest of the cabinet.
To support the heavy weight of the drill press below the top surface, I attached two additional 3/4” panels to the case. The height of these panels should be the same as the back panel, and the depth should allow for the drawer fronts to be inset of the main case. Lastly, I measured and cut the platform for which the drill press will sit on.
step 3: casters & levelers
Since my garage floor isn’t flat, I installed some leveling feet to keep the cabinet level and sturdy. I also installed some of these workbench casters with quick release plates that will allow me to move the cabinet when necessary, but still take them off so they don’t get in the way.
step 4: slot for drill press
With the cabinet level and sturdy, I used a hole saw and a jigsaw to cut the slot for clearing the drill press column. Then I followed up with a router and a roundover bit to knock down the sharp edges.
step 5: edgeband
To add some additional protection for the top, I cut and glued some 1/2” poplar around the edges of the top panel.
step 6: drawer boxes
Next, i moved on to making the drawer boxes, which are made from 1/2” ply for the sides and 1/4” ply for the bottom. With the 1/2” ply cut to size, I set up my router table to quickly run all the boards through for a dado to accept the drawer bottom later.
step 7: writing platform
The writing platform is made with a sheet of 3/4” ply with some thick trim around it for support. I used some scrap pine I had on hand for this. When gluing up the cross supports, I laid some offcuts on top to help distribute the clamping force.
step 8: installing drawers
To install the drawer slides, I used a piece of 1/4” plywood as a spacer to lift up the bottom drawer box. Then I pulled the slides out with the box in order to fasten two screws to either side. Then finally pulling the drawer box out with the drawer slides to fasten the 3rd screw to either side.
Once the bottom drawer box was installed, each subsequent drawer slide were positioned based on the drawer box underneath. I kept a spacing of 1” between all the drawer boxes.
Finally, I moved on to making the vertical drawer box, which consists of three sides screwed and glued into one large panel. In the video I mentioned an issue with the caster bolts, which forced me to lift the vertical drawer box much higher than I wanted.
step 9: drawer fronts
With all the drawer boxes in place, I cut the drawer fronts from one piece of 3/4” ply. I first marked and drilled holes for the drawer pulls.
Then I used some spacers to help me place the drawer fronts in the proper location so I could drill the corresponding holes in the drawer boxes. The holes in the drawer boxes are slightly larger than the ones in the drawer fronts, which will allow me to make additional adjustments of the drawer fronts before tightening down the drawer pulls.
step 10: adding accessories
With everything completed, I included some footage in the build video to show how to store tools and accessories in the vertical drawer. So if you’re interested, be sure to check out the video!